European Lenders Draw Down Central-Bank Reserves

LONDON—European banks that spent the past few years building up big stockpiles of cash at central banks have started drawing down reserves, a sign of the industry's renewed confidence and appetite for risk despite the Continent's financial crisis.

The amount of cash that a dozen of Europe's biggest banks have stashed at central banks has steadily risen from $765 billion at the end of 2010 to a peak of $1.42 trillion this past...